Apparatus for treatment of traveling materials with fluid media



Much 30, 1948. w. .1. ELVIN ETAL APPARATUS FOR TREATHENT OF TRAVELLINGMATERIALS W ITH FLUID MEDIA Filed Jan. 26, 1944 m n11 A Q s m m. Y 0 L ETNFH N W R MLHT .53 w ag T WME V Patented M... 30, 1948 2,438,549APPARATUS FOR TREATMENT OF TRAIKEL- ING MATERIALS WITH FLUID MED WilliamJ. Elvin, Frostburg, and Max A. Shaffer, Cumberland, Md., and Elmer R.Stahl, Meyersdale, Pa-., assignorc to Celanese Corporation of America, acorporation of Delaware Application January as, 1944, Serial No. 519,822

a'. yarn stretching apparatus of means for exhausting from theatmosphere steam or other vapors escaping through an orifice in thetreating chamber of sa d apparatus.

' Another object of this invention is the provision, in the treatingchamber of yarn stretching apparatus, of a novel jet for directing thestem or other vapors escaping therefrom away from the yarns passingtherethrough,

A further object of this invention is to provide a device forcooperating with the jet in the'treating chamber of the apparatus forremoving and condensing steam or other vapors escaping from said jet,and for collecting condensate leaking therefrom. A

Other obiects of this invention, together with certain details ofconstruction and combinations of parts. will appear from the followingdetailed description.

In devices for improving the tenacity of artificial filaments, threads,yarns and other materials wherein said materials are stretched duringtheir passage through a chamber containing steam, solvent vapors or hotwater under pressure, the materials treated leave the chamber throughsmall orifices and unless special precautions are taken a flow of steamor other vapor from the chamber through the orifices takes place. Thisvaporous current may exert an undesirable tensionpn the materials,particularly when the pressure in the treating chamber is high, sincethe vaporous currents issuing from the orifices may persist for somedistance along the path of the materials. These currents may alsoprevent rapid cooling of the materials when they emerge from thetreating chamber. Furthermore, the steam or vapor escaping into theatmosphere fogs the same and may even cause physical discomfort to thoseworking in the room. The steam or vapor escaping into the atmospherecondenses on to the apparatus, walls and floor with obviousdisadvantageous results.

We have now discovered that the foregoing disadvantages may besubstantially eliminated by diverting the vaporous current from thematerials as they pass into the atmosphere and by exhausting the steamor vapor and collecting the condensate. In accordance with thisinvention, this 2Claims. (01.68-5) may be eflectedby means of a noveljet for the passage of the materials, which jet is positioned at anangle in an opening in the treating chamber whereby the steam or othervapor is diverted from the path of the materials into an exhaust devicethrough which the steam or vapor may be led to the air outside of theroom or, in the case of vapors, into a recovery system.

In one form of our invention, the jet may be formed by drilling a holein a piece of metal or other suitable material at right angles to thesurfaces thereof, and the jet positioned at an'angle in an opening inthe end plate of the treating chamber, the opening in the end platebeing so formed as to retain said jet at an angle. When this jet is inoperation the vapor or gas passes through the same at an angle to thehorizontal, preferably in a downward direction, and the material passesthrough the jet opening in a straight line.

In another modification of this invention, the jet may comprise a pieceof metal or other suitable material in which the hole is drilled at anangle to the horizontal, in which casethe hole is of suflicient size topermit the material to I pass therethrough in a straight line. This jetis placed in the opening in the end plate of the treating chamber sothat it is in the same plane as said end plate. I

In the drawing wherein the preferred embodiment of our invention isshown,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view showing the novel jet in the treatingchamber,

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the end of a treating chambershowing our novel jet, and

Fig. 3 is a detail vie-w of a section of a'plate showing a series ofJets extending across the length thereof. Like reference numeralsindicate like parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring now to the drawing for a more detailed description of ourinvention, a table i is shown supporting a yarn treating device,generally indicated by reference numeral 2, carried by suitable supports3. The yarn treating device may be of any suitable design such as, forinstance, that shown in U. 8. Patent No. 2,142,721 to Dreyfus et al., ora two-compartment yarn treating device such as that shown in thedrawing.

The latter yarn treating device comprise a feed-- ing compartment 4 anda. substantially closed steam compartment 5, usually cylindrical insuitable fluid connections, valves and gauges (not shown). Thecompartment may comprise a cylinder 6 having ahead I integral therewithagainst which an apertured plate 8 is held by ring 9 and tie bolts 10.Plate 8 may have one or more apertures therein. Suitable gaskets il maybe employed on each side of plate 8 to form an adequate seal. Mounted ineach aperture of plate 8 is a Jet 12 the orifice or which is usually ofextremely small bore. Thus. for 30 denier yarn the bore is about 0.019of an inch while when treating a yarn with a total denier of 440 anorifice with a bore of about 0.037 of an inch may be employed. Thelength of the bore may be from about it to /4 inch. The Jets i2 aremounted in the plate 8 so that the axial line of the bore is at an angleto the path of travel of the yarn and the direction of the axial line ispreferably downward so that the .let directs any escaping vapor downwardinto the mouth l3 of an exhaust device, indicated generally by thereference numeral i i. The plate 8 may contain from 1 to 100 or moreJets equally spaced in a row or rows across the same, as is shown inFig. 3. The jets may be removable so that they may be changed toaccommodate any size or shape of material being treated.

The exhaust device may comprise a stack l5 that extends up through theroof of a building and may have suitable rain and wind shields IE or itmay extend into an exhaust conduit (not shown) of the general airconditioning apparatus for the room. The length and slope of the stackwill determine whether a fan need be employed to keep a current of airmoving up the same. One stack may be employed for each stretching deviceor several stretching devices may be connected to each stack by means ofbranching horizontal conduits, one of which is shown at H. The 'conduitsI! are preferably positioned below the Jets 1! and are provided with anend portion I8 hinged at 19 to either the table I or to the conduit [1.The hinged end portion i8 is provided with a mouth 13 formed byterminating the portion with the top side shorter than the bottom side.The hinged end portion may be lowered to the table iwhile threading upthe device with the yarn 2| and then as the steam is turned on in thetreatin chamber Sit is swung up and held in position by a pivoted catch22. It may also be lowered to i remove any condensate collected therein.The yarn 2i is drawn from the chamber above the conduit where it mayreadily be seen and manipulated since the escaping vapor is directedinto the mouth i3 of the conduit and exhausted from the atmosphere orpulled to a vapor recovery system.

This invention is applicable to all textile machines employed in thetreatment of yarns, filaments or threads with steam or other'vapor, suchas vapors of solvent and softening agents, forartiflcial yarns.Examplesof such vapors are those comprising acetone, ethyl acetate.etc.,

for use with textiles containing an organic de-' rivative of cellulose,such as cellulose acetate, and phenol. formaldehyde, etc., for use withtextiles containing polyamide linear condensation products. Although,as-stated above, this invention may be employed in connection with manytextile operations, it is-particularly adapted to those operations inwhich textile materials containing an organic derivative of celluloseare treated with steam under pressure, as in a crepe twisting operationor in a stretching operatic In both file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,485,053 Saunders Feb. 26, 19241,531,788 Jefferson Mar. 31, 1925 1,737,790 Gessner Dec. 3, 19291,782,734 MacDougald Nov. 25, 1930 1,975,036 Dulken Sept. 25, 19342,035,641 Dickie et al lyiar. 31, 1936 2,196,449 Witte Apr. 9, 19402,239,424 Iler Apr. 22, 1941 2,262,768 Kaltenbach Nov. 18, 19412,301,437 Milne Nov. 10, 1942 2,317,448 Dreyfus Apr. 27, 1943 2,360,352Lodge Oct. 17, 1944 4 of these operations, it is of great importancethat the duration of contact between the yarn and steam be accuratelycontrollable. In this respect, this invention has the added advantage ofremoving the steam from the yarn immediately at the exit end of thetreating chamber, as well as preventing fog and condensation.

While the present apparatus is particularly effective in the treatmentof yarns having a basis of cellulose acetate, it may be employed in thetreatment of filamentary materials having a basis of other materials,especially thermoplastic materials having a basis of other organicderivatives of cellulose, linear polyamide condensation products andsynthetic resins. Examples of other organic derivatives of cellulose arecellulose formate, cellulose propionate, cellulose butyrate, celluloseethers such as methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose and benzyl cellulose.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is givenmerely by way of illustration and that many variations may be madetherein without departing from the spirit of our invention.

Having described our invention, what we desire to secure by LettersPatent is:

1. Apparatus for the treatment of travelling materials with fluid mediacomprising, in combination with a compartment for receiving treatingfluid and having an end wall having an aperture therein, a jet having abore of smaller. diameter than said aperture extending axiallytherethrough through which the treated materials issue from saidcompartment into the atmosphere,

ing fluid and having an end wall having an aperture therein, a jethaving a bore of smaller diameter than said aperture extending axiallytherethrough through which the treated materials issue from saidcompartment into the atmosphere,

said jet being held at an angle in said aperture 4 so that the boreslopes away from the path of the travel of the materials therethrough soas-to cause fluid issuing from said Jet to flow in a direction away fromthe materials. J. liiiLVIN. MAX A. SHAFFER. ELMER R. STAHL.

anranancas crran The following references are of record in the

